Acle is a market town on the edge of the Norfolk Broads, straddling the old drovers' road across Halvergate Marshes between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, and long known as the gateway to the southern Broads waterways. The Norwich and District BKA covers the area, and the surrounding landscape — the grazing marsh and reed beds of Halvergate Marshes and the River Bure floodplain, the riverside alders and willows of the Bure, Yare and Ant, the dyke-side vegetation of yellow iris, purple loosestrife and Himalayan balsam that provides a distinctive summer forage on the marshland fringe, the oilseed rape and field beans on the higher ground toward Acle village and Beighton, and the bramble and elder of the old drainage cuts and railway margins — gives local bees an unusually diverse wetland and arable season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the riverside willows and reed-bed margins of the Bure at Acle Bridge, along the drainage dyke vegetation of Halvergate Marshes, in the mature lime and horse chestnut of the older village properties and churchyard, in the hedgerow oaks and bramble of the Beighton and Damgate lanes, and in the chimney stacks and roof spaces of the older brick and flint buildings on The Street and Norwich Road.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NR12 0SH· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteNR34 8JN· approx. 22 km
Visit websiteNR8 6ND· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring is carried on oilseed rape — vast sheets of it — across the light Brecks soils and the heavy clays of central Norfolk. Lime and sweet chestnut provide an important June flow in the parkland of the Holkham, Sandringham and Blickling estates. Bramble is ubiquitous; heather on the Brecks sandy heaths adds a distinctive late crop. The Broads themselves bring long flows from purple loosestrife, hemp agrimony and balsam along the staithes, and the coastal sea-buckthorn at Holme and Holkham is a known autumn supplement before the ivy.
More on beekeeping in NorfolkReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
